ABSTRACT
When I was elected to the Bundestag, I was celebrated by the Turkish media as the “Turkish member of the German parliament.” So I had to explain to those of the Turkish migrant community who saw the issue that way that I was of Turkish descent. Not more and not less. Had I been a Turkish member of the parliament, I would have been residing in Ankara and not in Bonn or Ludwigsburg. After a while, this point got accepted. However, the next problem of origin for me was just around the corner. Because my father originated from a Circassian village in Turkey, the Turkish-Circassian community in Germany had approached me: “You are a Circassian. How come you don’t emphasize that more in public?” Okay, but I don’t speak a single word of Circassian. Through my father I may have some access to another interesting little part of this world, as far as one can talk about it after thirty-four years since my parents have settled down in Germany. On my mother’s side, who was born in Turkey and who has lived in Istanbul until the migration, there are Greeks to be found. My mother’s grandmother was Greek. In Nazi-German terms then my mother is one quarter Greek. Whoever handles ethnicity in this fashion might as well commit harakiri. (Özdemir 1997, 8)
